[Review] City of Bones: Chapter Five – Clave and Covenant

This fucking chapter was another never-ending info dump, and yeah it moved the plot forward a bit. However, it was a chore to get through. In this first part it seems like most of these chapters are just filler. I said it earlier, but I’m going to repeat it again for those people sitting in the back. The first %25 percent of your novel is the most important to keeping their attention. This fact seemed to go way over Cassandra Clare’s head.

This Chapter was boring, and had very little action to break up the exposition. However, before I get into the details of the many sins Clare made in this Chapter let’s tackle the good parts first.

What I Loved

I’m going to admit right here and now that there is not a lot of good stuff to talk about in this chapter. However, the first good thing that really caught my attention was once again Clary’s backbone. Clary actually stood up for herself when Alec tried to talk down to her, and I was here for *every second* of it. Alec (and Isabelle in the first part of this chapter) hasn’t really endeared themselves to me at all. Alec just came off as just as much an asshole as Jace. However, instead of just laying down and taking it, Clary stood up to him and got right back up into Alec’s face. Her argument was factually wrong, but I blame Clare’s lack of research for that.

Her backbone continues to pleasantly surprise me, and I hope that it doesn’t disappear later on in the books. And although Alec was a snobbish asshat throughout this entire chapter, I do like how unlike Jace, Alec questions everyone’s idiotic assumptions that Clary killed the Ravener. It was like for that brief shinning moment Alec was injected with some actual common sense. Something, I would add, that this series desperately needs at this point.

Another big thing that I really liked for the most part was the Shadowhunters origin story. You can tell that Clare actually got off her duff and did some actual research for once. The whole story with the archangel Raziel giving his blood to humans in a cup (The Mortal Cup) to help battle the sudden influx of demons invading our dimension. I also liked that the cup itself later became powerful enough on its own that it could make new Shadowhunters without Raziel’s direct intervention. It actually really made sense to me, and actually fit in with the book’s overall theme of Angels vs. Demons. There are were a few things about the story that I nitpick (like for example the existence of God, and what role he had to play in the origin of the Shadowhunters) but I’m going to wait until later to see if Clare actually resolves the issues I had with it.

About the author

When I'm not roasting Cassandra Clare, or her creations, I actually have a job as a Digital Artist. When I'm not working, I'm either reading books, or chasing around my nieces and nephews, and fangirling over my OTP's, and re-examining my life choices.